its like those fools who collect comic books or any other childrens collectibles..

March 30, 2010Comic sale is a record The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has been shattered again. A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction website ComicConnect.com. The issue, which features Superman's debut and originally sold for 10 cents, is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books. The same issue sold in February for $1 million, though that copy wasn't in as good condition as the issue that sold Monday.

Aar1012:While I never expect to find something like this, I enjoy going to Goodwill to possibly find things for my gaming hobby

/Wants a Sega Master System for my collection

I had a SMS when I was a kid. I passed it down to my little brother, brother, and it may still be at home. It was a great system, but I did miss out on some of those great old NES classics as a kid because I went the Sega route and followed it up with a Genesis.

its like those fools who collect comic books or any other childrens collectibles..

March 30, 2010Comic sale is a record The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has been shattered again. A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction website ComicConnect.com. The issue, which features Superman's debut and originally sold for 10 cents, is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books. The same issue sold in February for $1 million, though that copy wasn't in as good condition as the issue that sold Monday.

What's wrong with collecting stuff you think is cool? Everybody should have a hobby, I'm not into planting flowers or playing pool, but I won't go around calling people morons for enjoying their thing

its like those fools who collect comic books or any other childrens collectibles..

March 30, 2010Comic sale is a record The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has been shattered again. A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction website ComicConnect.com. The issue, which features Superman's debut and originally sold for 10 cents, is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books. The same issue sold in February for $1 million, though that copy wasn't in as good condition as the issue that sold Monday.

What's wrong with collecting stuff you think is cool? Everybody should have a hobby, I'm not into planting flowers or playing pool, but I won't go around calling people morons for enjoying their thing

im not talking about early golden era comics. those are rare b/c it was the introduction of iconic characters when no one thought to keep them.

theres nothing wrong with collecting comics if you enjoy reading them. heck, i do. its idiots who think of them as investments that i laugh at.

I've said this to the comic book "collectors" out there, and I'll say it here: there's a huge difference between what something is worth and what someone is actually paying for it. If the thing is "worth" 15,000, then MAYBE they could find someone to buy it (are there NES collectors out there? and how rich could they be?) for about a tenth of that, if they're lucky.

It's like Antiques Roadshow. The people always spazz out when the guy tells them that the belt buckle once belonged to a guy who knew the uncle of Henry Knox, and therefore it is worth 10,000. They don't understand that the appraisal is just for insurance purposes. No one is going to pay that amount, or even a small part of it.

Baron Harkonnen:It's an old Nintendo game. How many people out of a thousand would know what that game is worth? Seriously.

Maybe 1 in 1000 might know off the top of their head that it's a rarer-than-average NES title.

If you work for Goodwill and your job is to price donated items in order to maximize store revenue, though, you might want to take 10 seconds and use the Internet to research the thing you haven't seen before.

If the plastic had not been cut-if it was truly sealed in the box-Hamm had no idea what it would be worth then. "Our price for the cartridge alone is $2,800, should we have it for any reason." In 2010, a sealed-in-the-box copy ofStadium Events listed on eBay<a data-cke-saved-href="<a href=" href="<a href=" http:="" kotaku.com="" 5479360="" collectors-item-obliterates-record-for-rare-game-sale"="" target="_blank">drew a winning bid of $41,300.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:I've said this to the comic book "collectors" out there, and I'll say it here: there's a huge difference between what something is worth and what someone is actually paying for it. If the thing is "worth" 15,000, then MAYBE they could find someone to buy it (are there NES collectors out there? and how rich could they be?) for about a tenth of that, if they're lucky.

It's like Antiques Roadshow. The people always spazz out when the guy tells them that the belt buckle once belonged to a guy who knew the uncle of Henry Knox, and therefore it is worth 10,000. They don't understand that the appraisal is just for insurance purposes. No one is going to pay that amount, or even a small part of it.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:I've said this to the comic book "collectors" out there, and I'll say it here: there's a huge difference between what something is worth and what someone is actually paying for it. If the thing is "worth" 15,000, then MAYBE they could find someone to buy it (are there NES collectors out there? and how rich could they be?) for about a tenth of that, if they're lucky.

It's like Antiques Roadshow. The people always spazz out when the guy tells them that the belt buckle once belonged to a guy who knew the uncle of Henry Knox, and therefore it is worth 10,000. They don't understand that the appraisal is just for insurance purposes. No one is going to pay that amount, or even a small part of it.

I'll guarantee that if it was put up on ebay starting at $.99, that it will finish well over $15,000. Probably closer to $20,000-$25,000.

There is a pretty insane retro game bubble going on right now, fueled by the tards over at the /r/gamecollecting subreddit, who sit around jerking it to pictures of old beat up carts and seem to eternally be in a dick measuring contest over how successful they are in turning their parents' basement into some kind of Hoarders: Gaming Edition horror show.

When I lived in Topeka, KS, there was a goodwill store that would routinely have new-in-box atari 2600 games that they would put out for $2 each (They were all still shrink-wrapped, and looked like they were never touched). I decided to buy them just for kicks.

So I have a small collection of NIB Atari 2600 games in my basement, River Raid, Pole Position, Pac Man, Star Wars (The ATAT one), E.T., Carnival Games, Dig Dug.

When I checked ebay last, they weren't worth anything. It's still something I get a kick out of, and I'll always wonder where the goodwill store kept getting a seemingly endless supply of new atari games.

FirstNationalBastard:The shocking thing is that a Goodwill employee didn't recognize what it was and stash it away so they could make a mint by selling it themselves.

It varies widely by location. I've done a fair amount of thrift storing both for the occasional old game stuffs as well as with the wife and in-laws, and I've gotten to know the different locations. Sometimes you can tell when there's a stasher there because you only ever see the crap sports games no one wants, and anything else is either priced high (or very high) or otherwise set up to never sell so someone can sell it to a buddy at a discount. I get the impression that a lot of employees mostly don't care that much about it, plus so much junk goes through there that individually pricing and finding the gems is difficult unless it happens to be their particular niche.

One time I went to one store I knew rarely had much out and found a giant pile of NES games. One of the employees mentioned the manager had found them all in a basket behind some construction junk in the closet, probably put there by an old employee.

/ At least vintage game carts don't take up that much space if all you really want to do is play the games and don't care about boxes and manuals and junk

tdyak:It's still something I get a kick out of, and I'll always wonder where the goodwill store kept getting a seemingly endless supply of new atari games.

How long after the crash was this? It might have just been unsold inventory that a local business dumped at Goodwill to free up space in their storage areas.

I remember finding a cache of MISB Vectrex games at a used video store, a good 8 or 9 years after the console tanked. Not even on display -- stashed away in a storage cabinet underneath a bin of public VHS tapes.

I bought one of each title they had (for about $10 each I think), brought them home, opened them up and played them. Because that's what games are for. Looking on line, I see that those tiles now go for $35-95 each, new in box, but I regret nothing.

Jobber8742:whizbangthedirtfarmer: I've said this to the comic book "collectors" out there, and I'll say it here: there's a huge difference between what something is worth and what someone is actually paying for it. If the thing is "worth" 15,000, then MAYBE they could find someone to buy it (are there NES collectors out there? and how rich could they be?) for about a tenth of that, if they're lucky.

It's like Antiques Roadshow. The people always spazz out when the guy tells them that the belt buckle once belonged to a guy who knew the uncle of Henry Knox, and therefore it is worth 10,000. They don't understand that the appraisal is just for insurance purposes. No one is going to pay that amount, or even a small part of it.

I'll guarantee that if it was put up on ebay starting at $.99, that it will finish well over $15,000. Probably closer to $20,000-$25,000.

And then it would have to be relisted when the hucksters decided not to pay. It's a video game, not an established antique or collectible just yet.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:Jobber8742: whizbangthedirtfarmer: I've said this to the comic book "collectors" out there, and I'll say it here: there's a huge difference between what something is worth and what someone is actually paying for it. If the thing is "worth" 15,000, then MAYBE they could find someone to buy it (are there NES collectors out there? and how rich could they be?) for about a tenth of that, if they're lucky.

It's like Antiques Roadshow. The people always spazz out when the guy tells them that the belt buckle once belonged to a guy who knew the uncle of Henry Knox, and therefore it is worth 10,000. They don't understand that the appraisal is just for insurance purposes. No one is going to pay that amount, or even a small part of it.

I'll guarantee that if it was put up on ebay starting at $.99, that it will finish well over $15,000. Probably closer to $20,000-$25,000.

And then it would have to be relisted when the hucksters decided not to pay. It's a video game, not an established antique or collectible just yet.

Okay, I'll rephrase, it will be won and paid for at $20K-$25K. There is enough demand for this for a legitimate auction to end in that range.

I'm not clear on what criteria you expect before something can be considered "collectible". People have been collecting and evaluating the rarity and value of video game cartridges for 30 years; thus, they are collectibles.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:And then it would have to be relisted when the hucksters decided not to pay. It's a video game, not an established antique or collectible just yet.

And that's exactly why the prices are going up on these things and not so much on 1990's comics. People still think that some day their polybagged Death of Superman is gonna let them retire some day, but it won't. But thirty years from now a sealed copy of an obscure NES game or an alpha edition Magic card might.

poot_rootbeer:tdyak: It's still something I get a kick out of, and I'll always wonder where the goodwill store kept getting a seemingly endless supply of new atari games.

How long after the crash was this? It might have just been unsold inventory that a local business dumped at Goodwill to free up space in their storage areas.

I remember finding a cache of MISB Vectrex games at a used video store, a good 8 or 9 years after the console tanked. Not even on display -- stashed away in a storage cabinet underneath a bin of public VHS tapes.

I bought one of each title they had (for about $10 each I think), brought them home, opened them up and played them. Because that's what games are for. Looking on line, I see that those tiles now go for $35-95 each, new in box, but I regret nothing.

About 7, 8 years ago, which is why it surprised me (During the PS2, Gamecube era). Someone, somewhere in Topeka has a ton of Atari 2600 games they are slowly offloading from their storage warehouse.

The Loaf:whizbangthedirtfarmer: And then it would have to be relisted when the hucksters decided not to pay. It's a video game, not an established antique or collectible just yet.

And that's exactly why the prices are going up on these things and not so much on 1990's comics. People still think that some day their polybagged Death of Superman is gonna let them retire some day, but it won't. But thirty years from now a sealed copy of an obscure NES game or an alpha edition Magic card might.

Thirty years from now does not mean BIG CASH BONANZA right now. And I'm talking about all comics that aren't super rare, from the 60s onward. Yes, the 90s comics are basically worthless (our LCBS owner tried to give them away, and only a few people picked some up), but, right now, games are not recognized universally as collectible. You may have the nostalgia-stricken person wanting Luigi's Mansion, but it's not as if you will see them at Sotheby's any time soon. Even NES.

Just so everyone is aware, Stadium Events is best described as a bubble in more than one way. It's vastly overvalued because the people spending absurd amounts of money on the game are living in a bubble. It has no value outside of its rarity. The game is identical to World Class Track Meet and its value is predicated on its short print run and nothing more. A rare version of a common game is still a common game. For comparison, the Nintendo World Championships cartridges are worth their bread because 1) they had an extremely low print run intended for competition use, 2) bring back fond memories of Nintendo's dominance during the eighties, and 3) is packaged with three notable games, all considered important or decent games for the system. Stadium Events is just dick-wagging.

its like those fools who collect comic books or any other childrens collectibles..

Lawl, here comes the "children" brigade. I love how it pisses off people so much that someone would enjoy something enough that they want to collect things they consider interesting. "Doing what you enjoy" makes you a child.

Ishkur:I have Herzog Zwei for Genesis, considered the godfather of real-time strategy games.

How much is that worth?

Boxed? Right now, the game goes for about forty to sixty bucks on average. I would think that's going to go way, way up very soon, because that game is way too good to stay a secret much longer. (I still want my copy, just because the game is freaking awesome.)

Mike_LowELL:Just so everyone is aware, Stadium Events is best described as a bubble in more than one way. It's vastly overvalued because the people spending absurd amounts of money on the game are living in a bubble. It has no value outside of its rarity. The game is identical to World Class Track Meet and its value is predicated on its short print run and nothing more. A rare version of a common game is still a common game. For comparison, the Nintendo World Championships cartridges are worth their bread because 1) they had an extremely low print run intended for competition use, 2) bring back fond memories of Nintendo's dominance during the eighties, and 3) is packaged with three notable games, all considered important or decent games for the system. Stadium Events is just dick-wagging.

thisiszombocom: "worth 15k"

sure. good luck finding a buyer.

its like those fools who collect comic books or any other childrens collectibles..

Lawl, here comes the "children" brigade. I love how it pisses off people so much that someone would enjoy something enough that they want to collect things they consider interesting. "Doing what you enjoy" makes you a child.

Ishkur: I have Herzog Zwei for Genesis, considered the godfather of real-time strategy games.

How much is that worth?

Boxed? Right now, the game goes for about forty to sixty bucks on average. I would think that's going to go way, way up very soon, because that game is way too good to stay a secret much longer. (I still want my copy, just because the game is freaking awesome.)

Because you just can't buy a repro of NWC as well? A complete in box Stadium Events is much rarer than a gray NWC and nearly as rare as a Gold (in known numbers). Given the market, it's probably valued right where it should be.

By that logic, no collectible of any kind has any value because it can either be placed into a digital format or reproduced with some degree of physical accuracy. (And yes, there are ways to build CIB and NIB duplicate copies of older video games.)

Jobber8742:A complete in box Stadium Events is much rarer than a gray NWC and nearly as rare as a Gold (in known numbers). Given the market, it's probably valued right where it should be.

The cornerstones in various hobbies (T-206 Wagner, '52 Mantle, Action Comics #1, Magic: The Gathering's Black Lotus) all have one thing in common: They are desirable items that may not have necessarily had low print runs, but had precipitating factors which weeded out those items as time passed. Stadium Events only meets the criteria for rarity. If we were talking about Super Mario Bros. or Mega Man or Castlevania or Metroid, and it was believed that only a couple dozen CIB copies existed, I would damn-well agree with you here. But we're talking about a low print run of an ordinary game with no historical significance. Its only value is to provide a piece in a complete collection of Nintendo Entertainment System games and people will pay out of the ass for that right. (And believe me, this is not something exclusive to the NES collector community. The Neo-Geo community is even worse when it comes to this stuff.)

Mike_LowELL:Jobber8742: Because you just can't buy a repro of NWC as well?

By that logic, no collectible of any kind has any value because it can either be placed into a digital format or reproduced with some degree of physical accuracy. (And yes, there are ways to build CIB and NIB duplicate copies of older video games.)

Jobber8742: A complete in box Stadium Events is much rarer than a gray NWC and nearly as rare as a Gold (in known numbers). Given the market, it's probably valued right where it should be.

The cornerstones in various hobbies (T-206 Wagner, '52 Mantle, Action Comics #1, Magic: The Gathering's Black Lotus) all have one thing in common: They are desirable items that may not have necessarily had low print runs, but had precipitating factors which weeded out those items as time passed. Stadium Events only meets the criteria for rarity. If we were talking about Super Mario Bros. or Mega Man or Castlevania or Metroid, and it was believed that only a couple dozen CIB copies existed, I would damn-well agree with you here. But we're talking about a low print run of an ordinary game with no historical significance. Its only value is to provide a piece in a complete collection of Nintendo Entertainment System games and people will pay out of the ass for that right. (And believe me, this is not something exclusive to the NES collector community. The Neo-Geo community is even worse when it comes to this stuff.)

They don't have any value in the real world other than what the market says they have. We can all emulate games for free if we wanted to, but people like you and me choose to spend our money on it anyhow. You were comparing NWC to Stadium Events and arguing that World Class Track Meet is the same game as Stadium Events. While the gameplay is identical, which means it doesn't matter which one you buy to a gamer, it certainly does matter to a collector.

The value in Stadium Events is the same has those in other collectible markets. It may have arrived there differently than others, but it's still there. The thought process isn't going to change now that it's thought of as the pinnacle of NES collecting. As long as there is a market for NES games, it will be at the top. That's not to say the NWC won't be there either though.

whizbangthedirtfarmer:The Loaf: whizbangthedirtfarmer: And then it would have to be relisted when the hucksters decided not to pay. It's a video game, not an established antique or collectible just yet.

And that's exactly why the prices are going up on these things and not so much on 1990's comics. People still think that some day their polybagged Death of Superman is gonna let them retire some day, but it won't. But thirty years from now a sealed copy of an obscure NES game or an alpha edition Magic card might.

Thirty years from now does not mean BIG CASH BONANZA right now. And I'm talking about all comics that aren't super rare, from the 60s onward. Yes, the 90s comics are basically worthless (our LCBS owner tried to give them away, and only a few people picked some up), but, right now, games are not recognized universally as collectible. You may have the nostalgia-stricken person wanting Luigi's Mansion, but it's not as if you will see them at Sotheby's any time soon. Even NES.

I wonder if the push to digital will make comics more collectible because eventually the print versions will be more rare. I grabbed Saga #1 via Comixology on release day, and only later realized I should have gotten a paper copy as well because first editions have been appreciating like crazy because of the limited print runs.